Another tsunami bicycle escape

When tsunami warnings blared in his town of Minamisanriku north of Sendai, Japan, Chuichi Sato bundled his wife and son into the car and sent them fleeing to higher ground, while Sato would follow on his bicycle.

Unfortunately, everybody else in Minamisanriku also jumped into their cars. “The roads were chaos as everyone fled at the same time,” says Sato.

Sato made it to the hilltop meeting spot on his bicycle then watched in horror as the huge surge of water engulfed thousands of cars stuck in traffic.

His family remains among the nearly 15,000 people missing from his town, which had a pre-quake population of about 20,000. Sato escaped on his bicycle, but what do you say to the tragedy of thousands of others lost?